- Average time until the loop begins (mean): About 16 minutes
- The cause of the loop or inciting incident: I watched The Map of Tiny Perfect Things and decided to do this
- Number of time loops (at least the ones I counted): 213
- Lessons learned: Time loop movies are cool, but I already knew that.
In March, it felt like the world was improving somewhat and it also felt like it would be fun to have a project to carry me through the spring and summer. I really like time loop movies and I’d been talking about doing this for a while so it seemed like the right time.
So yes — the list became a spreadsheet that became a schedule. I’d write about one or more time loops movie a week (well, movies and a TV show). I mostly stuck to the weekly schedule, but like all things, it admittedly began to fall apart toward the end.
I felt like time loop movies kept appearing the further I got into this. Despite my claim of “I will watch any movie with a time loop,” I decided against Boss Level for various reasons (plus, by the time it was released, my schedule was mostly always set). I also had a few backups — (Plus)1, Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel, Naked (and the movie it was based on, Naken, which didn’t seem to be available anywhere) and When We First Met. A few other movies got rejected because they weren’t actually time loop movies (although I did mention Resolution in my post about The Endless). I know there were some others I missed but I liked the ones I decided on. They showcased the diversity that is possible with time loop movies — not everything is Groundhog Day.
Out of everything I watched, there were only 9 movies I hadn’t seen previously (like I said, I like time loop movies). I enjoyed revisiting many of these and I was surprised by the ones I hadn’t seen. Some were better than others, but I wouldn’t say any of these movies were particularly bad. I think the time loop concept almost always works, or at least makes things interesting.
(I still have to say how much A Chance for Christmas legitimately surprised me, though. I went in with extremely low expectations and ended up being completely charmed by it. I love when unexpected things like that happen.)
Did I learn anything, like all people are supposed to in order to escape a time loop? I learned that despite a few hiccups, I was mostly able to maintain a weekly project for about five and a half months, which is quite an accomplishment for me. Do I feel like I’m a better person? I am glad I stuck with this, so yes.
I would like to thank Sarah Burnett for her awesome logo and Greg Bennett, Dan Fowlkes and Tracy Miller for their support.
And just because this is a time loop project, it’s only fitting that at the end I link to my introductory write-up I wrote for Unseen Films.
- In the Loop: Groundhog Day
- In the Loop: The Obituary of Tunde Johnson
- In the Loop: See You Yesterday
- In the Loop: The Girl(s) Who Leapt Through Time
- In the Loop: Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer
- In the Loop: The Endless
- In the Loop: Happy Death Day and Happy Death Day 2U
- In the Loop: Haunter
- In the Loop: Before I Fall
- In the Loop: The Map of Tiny Perfect Things
- In the Loop: Palm Springs
- In the Loop: About Time
- In the Loop: Time Freak
- In the Loop: Russian Doll
- In the Loop: Run Lola Run
- In the Loop: Live Die Repeat: Edge of Tomorrow
- In the Loop: Looper
- In the Loop: Source Code
- In the Loop: Christmas in July Special
- In the Loop: Timecrimes
- In the Loop: The Fare
- In the Loop: Repeat Performance
- In the Loop: Out of the Loop
(Yes, I just reused the Groundhog Day image because it’s funny! It’s a time loop! I went back to the beginning! I did joke I was just going to rerun that piece in place of this.)
